Dense fog likely to engulf open areas, expressways

Noida: Dense to moderate fog engulfed open areas in Noida and its neighbouring areas, including expressways, during the morning hours on Monday.

Noida: Dense to moderate fog engulfed open areas in Noida and its neighbouring areas, including expressways, during the morning hours on Monday.

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According to experts, due to the three major favourable conditions responsible for this phenomenon – low wind, high humidity and low temperatures – foggy conditions will continue for the next three days and subdue by around December 15.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), visibility at several parts across the National Capital Region came down to less than 10 metres – a condition seen under very dense fog, and will continue for the next two days.

“Humidity in the morning hours is quite high, and on Monday it touched 100%, leading to dense fog in the morning, especially between 5am to 8am. The dense fog condition will continue for another two days which will sharply reduce visibility,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD.

On Monday morning, one person died while 30 others were injured in three separate road accidents at Yamuna Expressway, Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Salarpur underpass, all within Dankaur in Greater Noida, due to dense fog.

All the three incidents took place between 2am and 7am.

According to weather analysts, while dense city areas will not see much fog, open areas especially roads near a water body or open fields, highways and expressways will see heavy fog.

“Currently the city is seeing variable winds, which are sometimes easterly and sometimes north-westerly. The humidity is high, the temperatures are low, around 10 degrees, and the wind speed at the morning and night hours is almost nil. This makes for a perfect recipe for fog,” said Mahesh Palawat, director, private weather forecasting centre Skymet.

He added that the conditions for very-dense fog will continue till December 8 or 9. On December 10, he said fog could be moderate, but another western disturbance will lead to light rains on December 11, which will further increase humidity and lead to very dense fog on December 12 and 13.

On Monday, the minimum temperature for Noida city was recorded at 14.2 degrees Celsius, against 15 degrees a day earlier. The humidity for the city areas – Sector 62 where the automatic weather station is located – was found oscillating between 97 and 68%, while in most parts of NCR, the humidity oscillated between 100 and 79%.